Benefits of Solar Power Paper

Benefits of Solar Power Paper

In Weeks 3 and 4, you conducted research about two topics: stem cell research or human cloning (Week 3) and alternative energy sources (Week 4). You analyzed the science and arguments related to the two topics and thought critically about them. This week, you will choose one topic to examine more deeply for your Final Project.

Part of your more in-depth thinking for the Final Project involves examining trade-offs related to the issue you chose. Often, controversy in a science issue such as stem cell research focuses on ethical concerns.  This emphasis on the ethical dilemma can overshadow the need to consider other important trade-offs. The same is true when considering human cloning or alternative energy. For example, what specific risks and benefits might stem cell research, human cloning, or an alternative energy source have on health, economics, or the environment? Could one of these topics have short-term benefits but long-term risks, or vice versa?

To prepare for this assignment:

Review course readings from prior weeks, particularly paying attention to the importance of identifying trade-offs when examining scientific controversies as well as society’s influences on science.

Find three additional sources on the controversy you have chosen. 

Add the three new sources to the three you found in the Annotated Bibliography you completed related to your chosen topic.

Identify trade-offs related to the controversy you have chosen.

To do this, identify the risks and benefits for a particular choice related to stem cell research, human cloning, or an alternative energy source. For example, common trade-off themes may be human health or economics. How might these themes benefit or encounter risk related to your chosen controversy?

Identify and evaluate at least three specific trade-offs (that is, the benefits and the negative consequences of a particular decision) related to stem cell research, human cloning, or an alternative energy source, focusing on these common trade-off themes: health, economics, environment, and ethics. Each of your trade-off examples must be part of a different trade-off theme category. (For example, one may be an ethical trade-off, a second may be economical, and a third may be environmental.)

State whether you support stem cell research, human cloning, or an alternative energy source, identifying which of your trade-off examples has the most influence on your opinion.